E3 Hands On Preview – Battle Chasers: NightWar

Battle Chasers: Nightwar, a beautiful single player RPG that started out as a very successful Kickstarter project and developed by Airship Syndicate and Published by Nordic Games, is based on one of the most popular American Comic Series in the 90s, by Joe Madureira. Joe Madureira is the Creative and Animation Director on the game, so the “flavor” of that world remains intact. The beautiful artwork, the rich and immersive environments, and the strategic depth are all high points that I know will have me coming back for more and more this October when the world will be able to enter the arcane punk wonderland of Battle Chasers: Nightwar.

In the time I had my hands on this game at E32017, it was clear to me that the developers thought through things like deep party synergy without falling prey to trite conventions. The party they had setup for the demo was made up of Calibretto – and Ancient War Golem, Gully – A young girl on a quest to find her father, and Knolan, a sage-like Wizard who packs much more power than one might think. Calibretto looks like he -should- be the tank, but he’s really a healer who can also deal some AOE damage in a pinch. Gully has the look of an elfish rogue, but is actual rather tanky and handy with crowd control abilities and taunts. And Knowlen is mostly arcane DPS with a sprinkling of heals available for support. Each party member can be cycled to be the party’s representative on the overworld, and is able to use their unique abilities to damage enemies before actually entering the encounter screen, which adds another layer of strategy and engagement that makes this game all the more appealing for me.

As far as the level design, we were told by the company’s PR rep that the dungeons are procedurally generated, which adds a TON of re-playability and depth. The environments looked complex and cohesive enough that I was surprised to hear that they were constructed this way, especially given the beautiful art style. And if you’re one for deep lore from a team that really cares, this is your kind of game. So come October 3rd, gather the family around and fall in love with this sure-to-be-epic RPG on your platform of choice. Yes, it’s being released on PC (Steam & GOG), Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.